The Chronicle Library Shelf
An Insider's Guide to the UN
By Linda Fasulo. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004
245 pages, ISBN 0-300-10155-4
Reviewed by Horst Rutsch
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Around the world of the United Nations in 26 short chapters—this would be an apt way to characterize An Insider's Guide to the UN by Linda Fasulo, who distils 14 years of first-hand observations as a UN correspondent into a concise overview of the world Organization.
It is less a book for UN insiders than an engaging introduction to the United Nations, which draws on the insights and assessments of a range of former and current UN officials, as well as diplomats at the UN. Ms. Fasulo, a veteran correspondent for a number of major United States news media companies—her reports can be heard regularly on National Public Radio—seems to have in mind mainly the interested public in North America.
Speaking to the UN Chronicle, Ms. Fasulo noted that "9/11 had a tremendous impact on the Americans' awareness of their linkage to the rest of the world. … It has attracted a lot of people to look at ways of resolving problems, and the UN has done a lot of good things. People are much more receptive these days." The relationship between the United Nations and the United States, particularly in light of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, is central to her account of the present day work and relevance of the Organization.
Chapters on the main UN organs, such as the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, and others on the Secretary-General and the Secretariat, provide a succinct overview of their structures and functions. Chapters also deal with UN finances and reform. But for Ms. Fasulo, these schematic overviews are only a beginning: "They don't answer simple questions like whether the UN has a military establishment or whether it can raise taxes. … While most Americans have a pretty friendly view of the UN, they know little about even its basic workings and often attribute to it powers and authority it does not have."
In addition to explaining a number of recent UN mandates, such as coordinating the fight against international terrorism and guiding globalization, An Insider's Guide highlights the importance of creating consensus, the use of preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping in resolving conflicts, and the role of UN sanctions short of military engagement. Some of the most interesting sections of the book look at how things get done at UN Headquarters in New York.
In "The UN Village", the author describes what she perceives as a surprisingly small number of key people who dominate negotiations and decision-making through their social force. This is the world of United Nations diplomats, representing their countries' interests in the General Assembly or the Security Council, who, she writes, do their work while socializing, "through small groups, formal or informal, endless meetings, caucuses, speeches, and meals". When trying to understand the UN, she maintains that "it is also important not to confuse administrative problems with issues of governance and decision-making, [which] often involve levels of persuasion, guile and gall that one would find in a novel or movie about Wall Street".
In "Making a Career at the UN", Ms. Fasulo presents the example of current UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor, to help readers understand this idealism that motivates people around the world to want to work for the UN: the desire to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people.
However, as interesting and often insightful as these chapters are, they do point to a weakness of the book. By focusing exclusively on high-level diplomats and UN officials as the Organization's "shakers and movers", it does not adequately acknowledge the importance of the regular UN staff. It is the thousands of general service and professional staff of the United Nations—serving as international civil servants or military peacekeeping personnel—who, through their continual efforts worldwide and not just at UN Headquarters, carry out on the ground the mandates adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council. And these tasks are not without risks. The terrorist bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003, which claimed the lives of 22 UN staff members, was only the most visible act of violence against UN personnel. Since the United Nations was founded in 1946, more than 1,800 peacekeepers have been killed. Over the past decade alone, more than 220 civilian staff members have been murdered and more than 260 have been kidnapped or taken hostage. This is an unfortunate oversight. Still, An Insider's Guide to the UN offers not only an informative and entertaining introduction to the multifaceted nature of the Organization but also presents an interesting spotlight on its equally complex relationship with the United States.
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